Thursday at the Calgary Entertainment Expo 2017

This is a good week. I have really needed a good week for awhile. Kevin O'Leary dropped out of the Conservative leadership race, I figured out some annoying RPG maker script stuff, Outlast 2 came out, I got a free parking spot really close to work today (vs a 5 minute walk), my good friend had her baby and oh, yes IT'S COMIC CON TODAY. And tomorrow. And the next day. And the next day.

I'm writing this before the con, and obviously I will add pictures and experience updates later. Today is my preview and shopping day. I actually have a bit of money to spend at the con this year saved from the sale of my broken car. I'm hoping to find some good items Kathleen and I can use to raise money for Extra Life this year. I also have a mission to find various people I know are going that I tend to miss for whatever reason in other years.

Oh my god, I just realized I wore the EXACT same clothes on Thursday last year. Same necklace and everything.

Last Year

This Year

Oops. 

Anyway...I finished up work around 4:30 and headed over to the Stampede grounds, which are fairly close to where I work. I at least knew where to go this year to get my wrist band, so that process was relatively quick and painless. Below is the general crowd (lol) walking to get their tickets. 

I ended up intercepting Justin by accident on the way, and in turn I happened to be walking behind another few people he knew, so he was essentially assaulted by a bunch of people while he was desperately trying to run and grab something. I told him I'd meet up with him later...and never did BECAUSE HE WAS ON BREAK. GOD.

Anyway, Justin is a friend from dodgeball and one of the key members of the Friday Night Gamers. He's one of the volunteers this year teaching people how to play various board games. I'll get back to that area later.

I escaped the Big Four and made my way back to the main exhibition hall, eager to get started with some shopping. I stopped by a tree to clear some streetpasses out of my 3DS and watch a Stormtrooper watch a bunch of Vikings scream and hit each other with sticks. This is...probably the least busy I've ever seen the Viking area the last few years I've attended.

Inside was tables and tables full of FRESH UNSULLIED MERCHANDISE. And now that I've said "fully stocked" in the weirdest way possible, please see the above obligatory comparison crowd shot. Thursday is absolutely wonderful for just exploring the con, talking to the booth owners and artists, and just generally being able to breathe. Navigating the floor is still an infuriating exercise in patience as you need to be borderline dancing to get around distracted people who don't know how to herd, but it's nice to not feel like cattle while you're there.

I essentially wandered up and down every aisle, taking subtle pictures of everything I could as I wasn't too sure whether vendors would get mad at me for snapping shots of their merch. I tried to take a secret shot of an image of Trump dressed up as a fairy, but the pictured turned out blurry.

I'm fairly certain that the LEGO display simply does not exist on Thursday preview night, because for the third or fourth year in a row (I'd have to go back in the blog to see) I could not for the life of me find them. I did, however, find a booth with hundreds of minifigures for sale ($5 each). I soon discovered that there were many many booths for minifigures.

And those Popfigures...

Like ALL the Popfigures this year. Last year there were at least 5-10 places you could get them. I want to say that a good 1/3 of the booths in the main exhibition hall and the adjoining one had at least a small selection to choose from. To be fair, some booths had secondary locations, but the sheer number of these things are ridiculous. Naturally I bought a couple (cause Shauna was looking for one and I found a masked Corvo). I saw what I assumed was a rare one in one of the booths which was selling for $299. I don't remember what it was. 

Also:

Big Bird will be supplying my nightmares this evening.

It was good to see some classics were back, like the finger tentacles.

And the uncomfortable number of bodypillows.

And the Tower of T-shirts with its ominous hanging bathrobes (which I can see they learned the merits of putting it in the MIDDLE of the floor vs the side near the washroom).

And the corset place, which I'm fairly sure has drastically increased their stock from previous years. 

The place that sold the giant cutouts of people, however, did not have any new Trumps...or really all that many cut outs. It had been replaced by a massive wall of Popfigures. 

Discovered some new things...and new oddities, including what appeared to be a secret tea party of some sort.

Something for Kevin. He knows what.

A series of...

...ominously...

...stacked...

SHEEP.

And...just...this...

Then I came across something I didn't quite know what to do with. I was staring at it for about 5 minutes, screaming internally and trying to determine whether paying $6.99 was worth finding out what it was.

They're...they're...Fire Emblem trading cards. 

FIRE EMBLEM TRADING CARDS. I did not know these existed. I have no idea what they are. I don't know what you do with them. But here they are. I think I weirded the dude out a little cause I was just standing there, staring at them until some kid came up to actually buy some of the cards.

Oh yeah, and then there was this. Pretty sure I saw these another year, but...well...you'll see it. Or them rather.

After browsing the hall and losing track of time a little, I checked out the connecting hall to see what was happening over there. Normally the LEGO display is here, but, every year it makes me think I'm insane when I don't find it the first day, then it's just THERE the next day I go.

I have no idea what any of this is. I am the best investigator.

Another picture for comparison, likely on Saturday. This is the autograph area. Only two of the booths had lines while I was there.

I pet some puppies at one end of the hall, then I pet a snake at the other end of the hall. 

Then I found a close cousin of the bodypillow...the LOG PILLOW (they're stacked on the top and all have anime patterns similar to the bodypillows).

huehuehue

Spotted a msi station with a Vive set up. Snapped a picture for the HTC crew. I was tempted to try, but there was a pretty big lineup for it.

On my way out to the Big Four and Artist's Alley, I found LEGO Batman atop a booth that apparently isn't coming back next year. Figured I'd snap a shot for posterity. 

Meanwhile at the tabletop games area, Justin was off on a break, so I stood, alone, looking at the Pips games. So lonely. So heartless. 

Just kidding Mr. A. I'll come say hi on Saturday or Sunday.

I was wondering why I took this until I looked at the top of the booth. Say hello again to tonight's nightmares. 

I breezed through a lot of Artist's Alley since I was running out of time for the evening and I was on a quest to find the tea place. I randomly encountered Kyle, who for some reason I ALWAYS meet in the exact same place by chance. I rushed around, couldn't find it, asked for help, got directed to the booth and then I was side-tracked by Wednesday.

Aka. Danielle who also works at the Starbucks near my work. She has a line of soaps and bathbombs, I was tempted to get some soap, but I had a mission to get to the tea place...which was two booths away at that point.

After I purchased my samples, I rushed out the building and across the many many parking lots to my car where I drove to the hospital. There I met my friend and she made the mistake of letting me hold her baby. Bad mistake Stacey. The aura is too powerful. Your son's a nerd now. 

So yeah, I'm glad to see that there's just so much at the con now to browse and that tons of local artists have a chance to sell their work in addition to the big vendors. Honestly, it started out with the smaller, local artists, so I'm glad to see that they have their own dedicated space in addition to the main exhibition halls. I wish I had more time to wander today, but there was so much and I got stopped at a lot of booths. Thursday is just great if you want to chat with a lot of the artists and media guest. They haven't been through Saturday yet, so they still have items to sell as well as the will to live.

I won't be covering Friday this year since there's nothing/no one I really want to see at the con and Shauna picked up Outlast 2 this week. We'll be starting that tomorrow.

Thursday at the Calgary Entertainment Expo 2016

Well, it's that time of year again ladies and gentlemen. Pull on the nerdiest shirt you own and join me in my adventures at the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo.

My afternoon started off with me getting stuck behind a train (not too uncommon considering where my office is located). While I waited, I crafted this response:

I arrived at the con, forgot it was Thursday and that I could park closer, and ended up walking quite a ways to the con. I was meeting up with Shauna, so I went to get our wrist bands and start wandering the con. This year the admissions and games (board and video) are in the lower section of the Big Four.

Behind me off screen to the left was the arcade, board games, food court and admissions area. To the right was this curtained off, dark, PC gaming area. I didn't take a peek inside, but from here I could see a lot of glowy.

Ooookay I took way too many portrait photos. So upstairs was the usual exhibit area with artists and vendors. Saw a Dalek, about a million flasks and was quite proud of myself for recognizing a Harry Dresden cosplay (however he was NOT in front of the staff shop, which was mildly disappointing). I found a bullet bracelet for Sarah and about a million of those leather watches I actually spotted in a pharmacy the other day. Shauna texted me at this point, so I wandered outside to find her.

I met up with Shauna where she adjusted her wrist band and complained about being expected to wear a sparkly band for 4 days (because people like doctors or lawyers who may attend might not want to wear a band the whole weekend if they had to be in a professional setting). I waited for her to get it right and we wandered back to the land of flasks...after we passed these two:

We actually came across the woman on the right peering into Pikachu's mouth to see how the costume worked, but they both didn't mind that I asked them for a picture. Then Shauna was like "oh, you're one of THOSE." She forgot I did daily recaps of the con.

We wandered around in the Big Four for awhile, and I found a giant stock of Toothless plushes. I'll have to see how drastically they diminish over the weekend.

Again...why did I take so many PORTRAIT PHOTOS. We wandered past the food trucks outside (pretty much the same ones as last year if anyone is wondering - perogies truck, Viet truck, candy truck, Japanese place and a coffee kiosk) and back into the BMO Centre to the exhibition halls. We started walking the aisles as I randomly blurted out random characters and art that I saw as we nearly got plowed over by other people equally not paying any attention where they were going (and this is THURSDAY mind you). I turned the corner and saw the most amazing sight.

The Tower of T-shirts MOVED. For the first time (at least since I've been going), the Tower is not along the edge creating a human singularity. For once, planning actually makes sense. It's dead centre. It's truly a sight to behold. I still didn't go inside because that's a claustrophobic nightmare, but I was still impressed someone had the foresight to put it there this year.

No idea wtf the giant purple head was, but there were these crazy glowy dresses on the other side. I think these are the people that make the Useless Machines.

So there were a few things this year that were...well, a "thing." Above you see two of them, Pop Figurines and life-sized cardboard cut outs. Both were everywhere in abundance. The Pop Figures have been around in large quantities for a few years now, but the cut-outs are fairly new...at least this many of them. There's even one of good old Drumpf with a $50 sticker covering his mouth. Shauna made the quip that she wondered if it came with darts. I asked the vendors and they said unfortunately not. The other thing we saw a lot of was...

...life sized anime body pillows. I've seen them at the con before, but there were A LOT of places selling them this year. One place (seen in the top picture with Shauna), even invited you to "turn them over."

Shauna wanted to be sure we pointed out some...details. I have questions, but I don't think I want the answers.

I still don't know how Five Nights At Freddy's is so popular. I saw a lot of fan art and cosplays. Like...way more than was reasonable. This seems strange to say but I now understand a little piece of my job a bit more. An understanding that asks way too many more questions as a result.

Naturally, even today, the cosplay is on point. There were some pretty impressive costumes around, even this early in the con. 

Shauna made the mistake of pointing them out to me, then I'd derail our explorations by asking for pictures. I'll likely be taking way more pictures of cosplayers on Saturday/Sunday. I'm really sad I missed out on pictures of an adorable Deadpool dad and Harley Quinn daughter, Kylo Ren and Rey, and Ike and Marth. I just missed all of them.

The one place over in the autographs building of the BMO centre had some interesting pieces this year. There was no Gollum or Azog, but there were a couple of cool displays including an impressive Balrog in a case. 

I was particularly impressed by the Balrog. Most of this stuff is for sale in some shape or form, but it's for people much richer...or much more dedicated than I. 

We finished off our day by saying hello to some puppies. Shauna was having a little trouble holding this little fellow, who was eager to get back to his human. 

And thus concludes Day 1 at the con, of which we left to get cheap fast food because we were both starving. We decided to pass on the food trucks for now. Tomorrow will likely be short because I'm only running over (possibly literally) to the con to see Agent Coulson, Then I'll be unfortunately preoccupied for the evening.

As a recap, the merch at the con this year is pretty good. A lot of the same webcomic creators are back. Most of the same artist vendors with the same prints. Too many cardboard cut-outs, FNaF, and body pillows were around. There were tons of great t-shirt places, the usual comic stores, the same tattoo place, that weird visual theme park ride thing, and PUPPIES. I haven't found the LEGO display though...

PS - I FORGOT THIS PHOTO

Best picture of Captain America ever.